The Home Cook Food Pyramid

This Home Cook Food Pyramid is simply a visual help tool. Think of it as a general reminder of the frequency of the different foods in your kitchen and table. The comments that follow are what helps you to grasp it.

The Home Cook Food Pyramid is not any official version from any government or institution. I developed it myself from my own experience with my large family, my neighbors, and my friends and acquaintances from various countries. And also through careful observation and study. In a way, it was like designing a huge opulent menu for a crowd!

Anyway, there are many food pyramid versions on the Internet. In case you need them I compiled an annotated directory of other food guide pyramids from governments and other institutions that I liked or found interesting.

The Home Cook Pyramid

How to use the Home Cook Food Pyramid

1. Very often group

At the base of the pyramid we have energy-giving carbohydrates like bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, grains and flour-based products such as the delicious homemade Italian and Turkish pizzas and Catalan coques.

Here are some more examples of what you can do with the foods of the first group:

Italians eat pasta of healthy durum wheat virtually every day. Moroccan and Algerian eat healthy superb couscous often. In Catalonia and Majorca we indulge in succulent rice dishes with fish, vegetables or lean meat. In the North of Italy they love polenta...

As for potatoes, the only not-so-healthy way to eat them is as French fries. I am not suggesting that you eliminate them completely from your diet if you like them. Reduce them to perhaps once a week and eat only a few at a time.

Here's what I mean:

As a result of French influence, Lebanese eat French fries and nonetheless their Arabic food cuisine is considered very healthy. This is because fries are only a small part of an exquisite and varied cuisine.

The lesson we learn here, which is applicable not only to potatoes but to all ingredients and produce in this food pyramid, is that variety and moderation are all-important.

In this first group we also have fresh seasonal vegetables and fruit loaded with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.

Include some vegetables in every meal and eat them in combination with the carbohydrates. Include as many different vegetables in your daily plan as possible.

Likewise, an everyday lunch and dinner ends mostly with seasonal fruit.

The reason I also included olive oil in this group is because we use olive oil all the time. Its presence is continuously felt. Indeed, olive oil is the pillar of the the Home Cook Food Pyramid.

This food puramid also includes olives often.

For example, for breakfast with some bread and white cheese, or as appetizer before lunch.

Olives are the taste of the earth and I felt I had to include them in the first group. If you eat them often you eat three, four, five at the most.

The last food in this first group is aromatic herbs and spices like thyme, basil, oregano, rosemary, parsley, sweet red paprika and many others. They flavor food recipes and are health-enhancing also.

It goes without saying that a healthy recipe calls for only small quantities of aromatic herbs and spices, but they are an indispensable shining star of a healthy diet. Again, you use small quantities but very often.

In the next page I discuss the remaining food groups of the food pyramid and recap the most important elements. Don't worry, you'll find the same image in the next page.

The food pyramid part 2, part 3